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Self-Reliance
We have turned to the state to solve too many of our problems. America has reached a sad state where every social problem inspires us to say "there ought to be a law against..." Rather than face up to the problems in our lives, our families, and our communities, we abandon responsibility and grovel before our rulers, asking them to fix the problem for us as though they were omnipotent beings. When they try to solve other people's problems bad thing occur and often leads to more violence. Acts of the state ultimately result in acts of violence. Few problems can be solved by violence. We have turned to the state to solve too many of our problems, and have caused many more problems as a result. We need to revive the American value of self-reliance and take responsibility for our problems as individuals, families, and communities, using all approaches available to us and not letting one exclude all other approaches. Pittsburgh's real reform should come from within. Pittsburgh needs to fix itself. Pittsburgh can't be put into the role of the continual beggar. Our destiny needs to reside on our shoulders. Pittsburgh should not be a slave of Harrisburg. Pittsburgh should be a leader among cities and a place that sets the trends in good government. :Tom Murphy's Mayor's budget address on November 8, 2004, had a mention of the city getting its house in order. That was spin to some. To me, it was a lie. Pittsburgh needs a mayoral candidate and eventually a mayor that lays out plans for self-reliance and plans to fix itself. Sorry, but government handouts are not the way we need to proceed around Pittsburgh. For starters, Pittsburgh is broke and there is little in the public treasury to hand out. Most of what resides in the treasury now is debt for the wasteful spending of the past years. The capital budget for the future is totally gone, zero, evaporated, squandered. The remaining cash-flow covers some of Pittsburgh's operational costs. The city needs its individuals to be more self-relant. But more so, the city needs the business community and corporations to be be self-reliant. Additional funding for bigger deals to corporations, i.e., stadiums, convention center hotels, downtown housing, parking for downtown housing, etc., is gone. We have none. :"A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money." -- G. Gordon Liddy Don't even ask. Getting in line for a handout won't wash. Handouts are gifts and privlidges for one, but a debt and take-away from another. Everyone became grand losers for bad deals after bad deals. Let's not fear that we'll be taking money from your parents, your neighbors, your kids, yourself. When we follow the money, we find that the source and the big losers: the citizens and taxpayers. Wants and needs come into focus. With such a large debt load, times are going to be tough enough. We can't have everything in the world that we want. :* I might want a new car. But I don't need it. :* I might want 50 billboards for the campaign placed all around town. But I don't need them. I need word-of-mouth and your vote. I won't pay anyone to vote for me, but I do need to earn your vote. :* My new parent pep talk to anyone with a new or expecting baby is simple. A baby's wants and needs are identical. For grown ups they are not. Need cash? Ask your fellow citizens directly for their money. Instead of going to the government and the public sources, go elsewhere. Go to the banks. Go to a valued customer. Go to the founding partners. Go to the employees and make them new partners. Go to savings. Hold an IPO (Initial Public Offering). When was the last IPO from a Pittsburgh based firm? When you rely on a governmental program to take care of you, instead of using personal responsibility, you find yourself caught in the gears of government. The only suitable answer for Pittsburgh's future is to get government out of the way. We need a social safety net like welfare to protect the poor. Yes, we need to protect the poor, but the welfare system encourages people to be reckless and irresponsible. It encourages people to wreck their lives, and I know you don't want to do that. We need a safety net, but not a hammock. What we need is a whole network of voluntary church, charity, community, neighborhood safety nets that encourage people to get a hand up, not a handout. I'm pushing us all to become self-reliant and not dependent. I pushed City Council to take care of its own business and clean up after itself. They choose to run to Harrisburg and cry. They grumble and plan trickery when they can't get their ways. When the begging doesn't work, deception might. Their games are not for me. I don't think we can prosper in the long run if we beg and use deception. I want to be transparent, open, clear, honest and rev up our fortitude for self-reliance. People who choose to live here and people who decide to place their business operations here want the same from their neighbors and elected leaders. The status quo culture is about to depart. The loafers who milk the system and are a burden for the productive can pack up. Then we'll all step up and be more productive. Right now, corporate welfare is a big government run social safety cage. Needed individual welfare helps the poor. Tax-supported welfare is often a cure worse than the disease. Welfare recipiants lose their benefits if they try to break into the work force. So, they get trapped there. Too many will never have a home or a car of their own, unless they turn to the drug culture. A lady went on welfare so her son with leukemia could get medical benefits. But welfare is all or nothing. She stayed on welfare for ten years to protect her son's health. The system needs some serious evaluation and management that cares for people, prosperity and tapping our potential. Two thirds of the tax money supposedly spent on the poor actually goes to the middle class administrators that decide who gets the money. The people who need help get a third of the tax dollars. A broken welfare means we need to give to private charities instead of the government. With the private charities, the needy gets 80-to-90 percent of the money, not the administrators. And, we need to fix it ourselves. It is okay to re-evaluate the welfare system. Pittsburgh's calling isn't to be on the leading edge of some metropolitian mashed potato craze. Pittsburgh, with its diversity, smarts and tight communities can be the place where the world learns how to fix welfare and thrive again. We need a massive push to personal freedoms, and the other side of the coin, personal responsibilities. Office holders get re-elected by handing out federal money locally. This trend of pork distribution is accelerating. We must find a way to stop this cycle. We need to use local and state resources instead of over relying on the federal government. But what if people won't contribute enough money? First, not as much would be needed if the overhead was 20% instead of 67%. Teenage girls won't get pregnant to get a welfare check and get out of the house because they won't be automatically guaranteed the benefits. If people didn't have welfare taxes, they'd have more to give. If people still seem to be in need, you could increase the tax deduction for those who give to charity. Just keep increasing those deductions until everyone is taken care of. Let's quit enforcing the laws that make it tough for the poor to go to work. Taxis in NYC need a medallion. Cost is more than $100,000. Poor minorities began driving illegal jitneys. Many areas don't allow home businesses. Most welfare recipients are able-bodied. Promote economic independence. Promote emotional self-reliance. Government agents must respect all citizens. Links * Self-Reliance by Swyers, an article. * category: Platform_Planks_from_Mark_Rauterkus Category: Fitness A Gift for My Daughter by Harry Browne, L, (RIP)